Turn 2

Some sports, like football and baseball, don't seem to be much affected by the economy. Oh, sure, there may be fewer fans in the seats, but the teams keep playing anyway, and eventually, the economy comes back around.

Then there's NASCAR.

This is a terrible time to be a team owner in the top levels of stock-car racing. Sponsorship money is drying up fast, and that's already shut down BAM Racing. This week, Dario Franchitti lost his ride because Chip Ganassi can't find a primary sponsor for his car.

And the Yates guys have been runing around with blank, white cars for weeks at a time.

MIchael Waltrip Racing can't find a full-time sponsor for the 00 car, and DEI's 01 is sponsored by...DEI, which, according to the company, means the car wil be cut for 2009 if a sponsor isn't secured.

The existing major sponsors are playing musical chairs--Caterpillar is moving from the 22 to the 31 (which leaves the Dave Blaney in a tough spot, since he now needs to find another sponsor), and, while Childress is adding another team, they convinced General Mills to move from Bobby Labonte's #43 Petty Enterprises ride to their new car.

And Tony Stewart doesn't seem to be taking Home Depot along with him to his (rumored) new ride at Haas-CNC, and even he's reportedly joined the game of musical chairs with existing sponsors: Stewart has been talking to "everyone in the garage," with Office Depot and Old Spice, which is on his Nationwide series car, as the primary candidates, according to ESPN.

With the exception of AFLAC, which reportedly outspent Office Depot to be on Carl Edwards' 99 car, there just aren't many new companies trying to buy into the sponsorship game.

It costs upwards of $20 million for a company to get into the NASCAR primary-sponsorship game, because, despite NASCAR's efforts to help control costs (with the COT program, for example), the one consistent principle behind auto racing is, "Speed costs money." One estimate suggests that it costs a team a quarter of a million bucks just to unload the car at the track for one race.

(Last year, when MWR was about to go under, Waltrip actually based his decision on whether he'd take tires for a late-race pit stop on the fact that they'd save money if they saved the tires instead of using them.)

With companies around the country laying off employees, that $20 million is becoming harder to find.

The big-time, long-term deals like the 48's Lowe's Home Improvement sponsorship, or the #24's Dupont association, seem to be going the way of the dinosaur; even Dale Earnhardt, Jr., the sport's most popular driver, has a shared sponsorship deal this year.

Smaller teams will continue to disappear under these conditions. How long, for example, can EM Motorsports continue to field the 08 Dodge for Johnny Sauter, when the car is covered by FUBAR, an energy drink no one will ever confuse with Powerade, Monster, or Red Bull? Already, the team has withdrawn from races, presumably because it couldn't afford to run.

When was the last time the Chicago Cubs didn't play because they couldn't afford to travel?

The economic climate can't change fast enough to suit racing teams. If it doesn't, the field's gonna be a lot smaller for next years' Cup races.